Question

Read the passage from Sugar Changed the World. For an African, whether you were sent to the Caribbean or South America, you were now part of the sugar machine. And it did not much matter where your ship landed. You could be working the fertile fields of Brazil or the hills of Jamaica; the brutal cycle of making sugar was much the same. If the terrain was not too rocky or hilly, you might be part of a group of slaves who drove teams of oxen to draw plows across the fields. On rougher ground, you were sent out to clear a space five inches deep and five feet square. Then you dug holes for the cane shoots in the cleared squares. You needed to work quickly and without stopping. Overseers watched closely to make sure of that, beating slaves who did not carve out at least twenty-eight holes an hour on one French island. Which excerpt best states the author's claim? "For an African, whether you were sent to the Caribbean or South America, you were now part of the sugar machine." "You might be part of a group of slaves who drove teams of oxen to draw plows across the fields." "On rougher ground, you were sent out to clear a space five inches deep and five feet square." "Overseers watched closely to make sure of that, beating slaves who did not carve out at least twenty-eight holes an hour."

Answer 1

The correct answer is the first option “For an African, whether you were sent to the Caribbean or South America, you were now part of the sugar machine.”. Taken from the book “Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science” by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos (2010), this excerpt best states the main point or claim of the text that the author narrates: the operation of the sugar machine. In other words, this could be the thesis statement. The rest of the options are supporting sentences that develop the actual operation of the sugar machine: how someone may be part of another group, how someone may work according to the ground, and how overseers supervise someone’s work.

Answer 2

The correct answer is: For an African, whether you were sent to the Caribbean or South America, you were now part of the sugar machine.

This is the main idea of the paragraph, in other words, the primary point communicated by the author. It helps giving the overarching idea of the text, it can be described as a brief but all-encompassing summary. In a larger text, with a lot of paragraphs, this main idea is found in the thesis statement. This text is part of the book Sugar Changed the World, I don't know if this main idea is also the thesis statement, it can be just an individual smaller point.

The other options are arguments that support this main idea , they help the author demonstrate that his statement is correct. This evidence helps the reader realize how the Africans were condemned no mattering were they sent them. These other options transmit that confinement feeling; you were forced to drive oxens, to carve twenty-eigth holes an hour, or clear a space five inches deep and five feet square, otherwise you were severely punished.